May 24th, 2019: Bada Boom, Big Bada Boom

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hawaii is comprised of 137 islands, but most people only think of the 8 main islands.
The smallest of the 8 main islands is Kahoʻolawe which is 6 miles wide x 11 miles long or 45 square miles.
In 1941 the federal government evacuated the few residents to use the island as a target range for ships and planes to practice
their artillery and bombing accuracy skills. For the next 50 years the testing continued, then the natives got pissy and went to court.
In 1993 Congress voted to transfer the island back to the state, but there was a matter of unexploded ordinance and debris.
From 1998 to 2004 we spent $400 million to remove over 9 million lbs of unexploded bombs and debris from 75% of the island
to a depth of 4 ft. Since it’s all torn up I think they should plant cannabis for erosion control.

That a lot of Bada Boom, but the Big Bada Boom was operation Sailor Hat.
If you remember the pictures of the nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands the Navy parked various sized boats/ships at different
distances from the blast to see how the ships would suffer, and more importantly how the ships weapons systems would suffer.
When the Nuclear Atmospheric testing was halted by treaty, the Navy hadn’t finished their testing so they build a substitute on
Kahoʻolawe. No Nukes, no radiation just a pile of TNT.
500 TONS of TNT! then they filled the crater with sand and did it again... and again.

Operation Sailor Hat was a series of three tests of explosives effects, conducted by the United States Navy on the island of Kahoʻolawe, Hawaii in 1965. They were non–nuclear tests employing large quantities of conventional explosives (i.e. TNT) to simulate the effects of a nuclear weapon blast, such as the effects upon naval vessels. In addition, seismologicaldata, underwater acoustics, radio communications, cratering, air blast effects, cloud growth, fireball generation, and electromagnetic data were gathered. The light cruiser USS Atlanta, the guided-missile destroyer leaders USS England and USS Dale, the guided-missile destroyers USS Cochrane, USS Benjamin Stoddert, and USS Towers, and the Royal Canadian Navy's escort destroyer HMCS Fraser all participated in the trial.

Cameras recorded the blast effects inside the ships and have shown that the force of the blast was enough to buckle steel walls and tear off heavy radar equipment and send it flying. Although severely damaged, the ships stayed afloat. In addition, two observation blimps were destroyed high above ground by the shock wave. USS England, which was farthest from the blast center, experienced the least damage, the most serious of which was only a dent where a boulder had hit the ship.

500 tons, 1,000,000 lbs of TNT.
For comparison look at what 2 tons of dynamite and 4.5 tons of “Car-Prill” (ammonium nitrate, ground nut shells and Diesel oil*)
did to Roseburg, Oregon in 1959, when the truck it was in caught fire while parked on a city street.
* The diesel oil is probably to burn through steel beams because jet fuel won't.

A crater 52 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep gave mute evidence to the terrific force of the blast. Most of the buildings in the immediate twelve blocks were completely destroyed. Hundreds of other buildings in the community suffered extensive damage over a 50-block area, and glass breakage was reported as far as 9 miles from the explosion. Tremors were reported as far away as 17 miles. Adding to the havoc, fires soon appeared in numerous buildings in the surrounding area. These fires were apparently started by radiant heat and flaming debris scattered by the explosion. More than 45 buildings were involved. The conflagration was confined to a 7 -block area through the combined efforts of the local fire department and fire companies from neighboring districts and nearby cities. The fire was brought under control in two hours.

They were lucky in was the business district, and not a residential, or there would have been more than 13 killed and 125 injured.
The $9 million in property damage is $80 million today. Remember that was only 6.5 tons made a Big Bada Boom.

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[Diaphone Jim]

Two catastrophic fire stories in a week, both making very good reading.
The pdf at the second link on the Roseburg event is gripping.
I didn't know heat (or fire) would detonate either of the explosives on the truck.
I also don't know what the small amount of walnut shells does for the Car-Prill.

I do know that I think I may have done enough Googling blow-up stuff for one day.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I would guess the shells are to keep the oil distributed throughout the mix.